Washing a Car in Your Own Driveway in Washington State is a Crime

If you want to save a few bucks, skip the car wash and wash your car in your own driveway.

Except if you live in Washington State, that is. There, washing your car in your own driveway is illegal:

Washing your car or boat in the driveway or street is a residential ritual as American as backyard barbecues. But the state of Washington is telling its local governments they must prohibit home car washing unless residents divert the wash water away from storm drains, where they say it causes water pollution.
"I understand this is something people have done for a long time," says Bill Moore, water quality specialist with the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is requiring the ban. "It's not something we should be doing any longer."
He says the soapy runoff is toxic to salmon and other fish and that small metal particles that wash off cars, such as brake dust, is harmful, too.

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we can solve so many problems like this with some simple solutions. beside the ways laid out in the article presented by ken, why not try these things as well:

to combat the issue of wasting water, why not collect it, filter it, and re-use it for future car washing in the same location?

to combat the issue of hazardous cleaners running off into rivers and such, why not use biodegradable soaps and cleaners that are safe for the environment?

to combat the issue of using coal/oil to power the carwash, why not install solar panels on the roof?

we are so smart, yet, play dumb when it comes to treating our planet the way it needs to be treated. didn't we come from the earth? how is it so hard for us to nurture it the same way it nurtured us? the "big" companies of the world need to get on the bandwagon because there is only so much we can do individually. large companies receive government grants all the time to expand their business, why not use them on renewable energy sources and make human pollution a thing of the past? yes, i understand it is impossible to get rid of ALL human pollution, hell even cows contribute a large portion of pollution to the air and they don't have big sexy brains like we do.